If you need a Columbia back and neck injury workers comp lawyer, understand this first, the insurance company treats back and neck claims differently than almost any other injury type, because back and neck problems are the easiest injury for an insurance company doctor to blame on something other than your job. Degenerative disc disease. Prior car wreck. Normal aging. The insurance company’s Independent Medical Exam doctor has a standard playbook for back and neck claims, and it starts with finding a reason your injury was not really caused by the job that hurt you.

What Mississippi Law Requires For A Columbia Back And Neck Injury Claim

Mississippi law requires notice to your employer within 30 days of a back or neck injury and requires a claim to be filed with the Commission within two years, both deadlines set out in Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-35. A back or neck injury qualifies as compensable when it arises out of and in the course of your employment, whether it happened in a single lifting incident or developed gradually from repeated strain over months of physical work. The insurance company is required to pay for reasonable and necessary medical treatment and wage loss benefits once the injury keeps you out of work more than five days.

Where back and neck claims get complicated is apportionment. Under Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-7(2), if a pre existing condition, including ordinary degenerative disc changes that show up on almost every adult’s MRI after a certain age, is found to be a material contributing factor, your compensation can be reduced by that proportion. The pre existing condition does not even have to have caused you any symptoms before your work injury for the insurance company to raise this argument. Almost every back and neck claim I see in Columbia runs into this argument in one form or another.

What Counts As A Compensable Back Or Neck Injury In Columbia

Herniated and bulging discs, pinched nerves, spinal stenosis aggravated by a work incident, muscle and ligament strains, and fractures from falls or heavy equipment all qualify when the work caused or aggravated the condition. Construction workers, warehouse employees, healthcare workers who lift patients, and anyone doing repeated bending or twisting on the job are especially common back and neck claim categories in this county. A single traumatic lifting incident is the easiest version of this claim to prove. A back injury that developed gradually over months of repetitive strain is harder to document but no less real, and no less compensable under Mississippi law when the connection to your job duties can be shown.

Why The Insurance Company Fights Back And Neck Claims Harder Than Almost Any Other Injury

Back and neck injuries are the single most common workplace injury type, which means the insurance company has built an entire defense strategy specifically around them. The strategy starts with the Independent Medical Exam, where the insurance company selects and pays a doctor whose job, whether stated out loud or not, is to find degenerative changes on your imaging and attribute your pain to those changes rather than to the work incident that actually triggered your symptoms. That doctor’s opinion becomes the centerpiece of an apportionment argument designed to cut your benefits by a percentage the insurance company picks, not a percentage a judge has actually decided.

A secretary handling your file at a TV lawyer’s office does not know to challenge that Independent Medical Exam opinion with your own treating physician’s testimony or a second medical opinion. She takes the insurance company’s number, negotiates a little, and calls it done. The apportionment percentage the insurance company proposed becomes the apportionment percentage you get, even though Mississippi law says only an Administrative Judge has the authority to decide that number, not the insurance company and not its hired doctor.

What A Columbia Back And Neck Injury Claim Is Actually Worth

The value of your claim depends on your correct average weekly wage, whether you reach maximum medical recovery with a permanent impairment rating or fully recover, and whether the apportionment argument the insurance company raises actually holds up to scrutiny from a doctor who is not on the insurance company’s payroll. A permanent partial disability rating on a back or neck injury can affect your benefits for years, which makes the fight over apportionment on this specific injury type worth far more attention than the insurance company wants you to give it.

Surgical back and neck cases carry even higher stakes, since a spinal fusion or disc replacement changes the permanent impairment calculation substantially, and the insurance company knows exactly how much that changes its exposure. That is exactly why the apportionment fight starts earlier and gets more aggressive the more serious your back or neck injury actually is.

The Foster Fair Fee Guarantee On Every Columbia Back And Neck Injury Case

Every Columbia back and neck injury case I take is covered by the Foster Fair Fee Guarantee. Written. In your agreement. Before I do a single thing on your case. You walk away with more money than I receive in fees. Every case. No exceptions.

The Columbia workers comp lawyer hub covers every workers comp topic relevant to Marion County claims. The Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission publishes the rules and forms that govern every claim filed in this state.

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Why The TV Lawyer Cannot Win The Apportionment Fight On Your Back Or Neck Claim

The apportionment fight on a back or neck injury is decided at a hearing before an Administrative Judge, physically held in this county, and the TV lawyer advertising during the evening news has never appeared before that judge on a workers comp matter. He has never cross examined the insurance company’s Independent Medical Exam doctor about why ordinary age related degenerative changes suddenly became disabling on the exact day you got hurt at work. He has never put his own medical expert on the record to challenge the insurance company’s apportionment number. Without that fight, the insurance company’s proposed percentage simply becomes what you get, no matter how wrong it actually is.

Then come his fees. His percentage off the top, then the fees behind the fee, a medical record retrieval fee, an expert fee to review the very apportionment finding he never actually challenged, a case management fee, fee fi fo fum fees invented as fast as his office can invent them, each one stacking on top of the last. You lose twice on a back and neck claim handled by a TV lawyer. Once when he accepts the insurance company’s apportionment number without a fight, and again when he takes his cut of whatever is left after that discount.

Frequently Asked Questions, Columbia Back And Neck Injury Claims

Can I Get Workers Comp For A Back Injury In Columbia If I Have Degenerative Disc Disease

Yes, though the insurance company will likely raise apportionment under Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-7(2), arguing your pre existing degenerative changes contributed to your current disability. The pre existing condition did not have to be disabling before your work injury for that argument to come up, but only an Administrative Judge, not the insurance company, decides the actual apportionment percentage.

Does A Gradual Back Injury From Repeated Lifting Qualify For Columbia Workers Comp

Yes. A back injury that developed gradually from repeated lifting or bending on the job can qualify the same as a single traumatic incident, as long as the connection between the work duties and the injury can be documented through medical records and the timeline of your symptoms.

Will The Insurance Company Send Me To Its Own Doctor For My Columbia Neck Injury Claim

Very likely. The Independent Medical Exam allows the insurance company to select and pay a doctor to examine you, and that doctor’s opinion is often used to argue apportionment or dispute the severity of your injury. You are entitled to challenge that opinion with your own treating physician’s testimony or a second medical opinion.

What If I Need Back Surgery For A Columbia Work Injury

Reasonable and necessary surgical treatment is covered under Mississippi workers comp law, and a surgical case typically results in a higher permanent impairment rating once you reach maximum medical recovery, which is exactly why the insurance company tends to fight apportionment harder and earlier on surgical back and neck claims.

How Long Do I Have To File A Back Or Neck Injury Workers Comp Claim In Columbia

Notice to your employer is required within 30 days of the injury, and a claim must be filed with the Commission within two years under Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-35. For a gradually developing back injury, report it as soon as you connect the pain to your job duties rather than waiting to see if it improves on its own.

P.S. The insurance company already has an Independent Medical Exam doctor lined up who specializes in finding degenerative changes on imaging and blaming your pain on anything except the job that actually hurt you. You do not know that yet. Get the FREE book first and find out what the insurance company is counting on you never learning before that exam happens.

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